John Gray provides plenty of insight into the damaging effects of global capitalism, and yes, identifies many of its delusions. He is another protagonist we should listen to about where we are going wrong. Having read the book, however, I’m not quite sure where he stands on capitalism per se, as most of his arguments are directed only at unfettered free market activity. There are enough arguments to extrapolate this philosophical view about the free market aspect of capitalism to draw the conclusion that capitalism in itself is fundamentally flawed. John Gray stops short of doing that, unlike many learned economists. He also dismisses Marx with a few throw away comments here and there, when other economists have spent a lifetime trying to challenge his theory. Equally his vilification of the former Soviet Union is curious in the context of what this book is supposedly trying to get across about capitalism. Where does his tirade against the former Soviet Union fit into this argument about free market capitalism? Nowhere is the answer. His narrative on the failings of the Soviet Union is equal in volume, if not detail, to his description of the excesses of the United States which is his whole premise of where our troubles lie. No leeway whatsoever is granted to the performance of the former Soviet economic system versus capitalism in the context of setbacks it experienced in demographic decimation from the Second World War and subsequent economic isolation. His is not therefore a philosophical argument; is merely argument based on “you lost so you were wrong”. But why that argument finds itself in this book in the first place is curious and perhaps Mr Gray desperately doesn’t want the reader to turn to Marx for answers to the very real issues he raises. The question we are therefore left with having read the book is, well what would you do about it then?